


Fates Intertwined

by chelseafrew



Category: Kings
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseafrew/pseuds/chelseafrew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly how is Jack faring trapped in a room with Lucinda?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fates Intertwined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noharlembeat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noharlembeat/gifts).



> I wanted to write something Kings this year, and you wanted Jack, and I love Jack with all my heart, so I wrote Jack for you. I hope you enjoy it! My thanks to M for the beta read and the encouragement.

"God, I hate books." Jack dropped the tome he'd been trying to read for the past hour onto the chair and began to pace from one corner of the room to the other and back again.

"Jack," Lucinda said softly from where she sat on the one other chair in the room. "Jack, you need to relax."

He turned on her with such ferocious vigor that she nearly fell backwards in her seat. "Relax?" he barked. "You think I need to relax?"

"Jack…," she tried again.

Scathingly, he said, "We have been locked in this room for a month now, with no end in sight. I am in hell, and you want me to relax. I can't, Lucinda. I’m too busy trying to keep myself from crawling out of my skin." 

"Maybe if we did what we're supposed to be in here to do, this would end," she suggested evenly.

Jack snorted. "So naïve. You think after what I did that Silas is ever going to let me leave this room? No, he promised me a fate worse than death. This is that." He looked her up and down, shook his head, then returned to the chair he'd been sitting in just a few short moments earlier. He tossed the book onto a nearby table and slumped once again into the seat, tossing his head back despairingly.

The only sound in the room following Jack's proclamation was the sound of Lucinda's quiet sobs.

Jack bore it for less than three minutes before snarling, "Will you be quiet?"

Through sobs which hitched as she tried to control them, Lucinda pointedly stated, "You’re not the only one trapped in here, you know?"

Sitting up straight, Jack opened his mouth to say something, but found he had no words.

Lucinda, however, had plenty. "You think this is what I imagined for myself? Being trapped in a room with someone who will never love me? Expected to carry a baby I won't be allowed to raise? You're not the only one in hell, Jack Benjamin. Stop being a martyr."

Jack sucked in a quick breath, letting it out slowly. "How long have you known?"

"Which part?"

He had the grace to sound ashamed as he clarified, "That I'm not ever going to love you the way you want me to."

She shrugged. "I think I always knew. I just didn't want it to be true. But I've seen the way you look at Peter when he's the one who brings in the daily supplies."

Jack winced, though he knew he should not have been surprised she'd figured him out. Not when they were together every day, all day. "I'm sorry," he told her sincerely.

She chuckled. "How'd that taste coming out of your mouth?"

"Bad enough that I'll ask you not to make me repeat it."

She offered him a small smile in acceptance of his apology. "This will be a lot easier to get through if we try to do it together."

Jack nodded and sighed with resignation. "I know."

"I'm truly sorry this happened to you, Jack. You don't deserve this."

"No, maybe I do, but you don't."

She stood up to walk over to him, holding out her hand. "Truce?"

He took her hand and shook it. "Truce."

Lucinda smiled. "So…. No more books, is what you're saying?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Thomasina has the worst taste in literature."

"Why don't you let me try to negotiate for a television? Peter may have an eye for you, but I think James may have an eye for me."

Jack grinned. "Well, if you aren't full of surprises, Lucinda Wolfson. It would be nice to have something else to do in here."

At that moment the sound of a key unlocking the door heralded the entry of James, the object of their conversation.

"Sit back, Prince Jack," Lucinda said, "and watch me work."

End (23 December 2012)


End file.
